Are We Riding Out The Sixth Mass Extinction?

The oceans are rising up

A message is being generated from many, many different origins of information.

The message now being generated is that the Sixth Mass Extinction is strongly under way, furthermore, we are all on the ship of petroleum-civilization that is currently going down.

Regular readers know that the Ecocosmology Blog and Dredd Blog have mentioned that particular species of scientific data for years now (e.g. The Damage Cannot Be Undone?-2009, Shadow of Time Governs The Earth-2009, What Do You Mean - World Civilization?-2009, Confusing "Civilization" With "Species"-2010, Embryonic Look At Civilization's Future-2010, Civilization Is Now On Suicide Watch, 2, 3, 4).

This debate and discussion is spreading around the Internet:

The point is simply this: you are welcome to analyse the scientific evidence for yourself and make your own assessment of the timeframe and the degree of severity of the threat. Perhaps human extinction will not occur until next century. But whether we define ‘near term’ as 2030, 2040 or even next century, human extinction is now a distinct possibility. And after 200,000 years of our species, calling this ‘near term’ seems reasonable.

So is near term human extinction inevitable?

In my view, human extinction is the most likely outcome. But not simply because we are inflicting too many insults on the planetary environment. Extinction is inevitable because of human fear and, specifically, unconscious fear: The fear in ourselves and others that is not experienced consciously but which often drives three capacities that are vitally important in any context: the focus of our attention, our capacity to adequately analyse the evidence (if we get our attention focused on it) and our behaviour in response to this analysis. For example, if you do not know that your fear is making you screen out unpalatable information, then you won’t even notice that you have turned your attention elsewhere and have now forgotten what you just read. Or your fear might prevent you adequately analysing the evidence and/or responding intelligently to it. See ‘Why Violence?’ and ‘Fearless Psychology and Fearful Psychology: Principles and Practice’.

So, if you are one of the people still reading this article, you are probably less frightened than most people. The others gave up before they got to this paragraph. So let me now tell you the primary problem with the fear. It distorts the mental focus, capacity for analysis and the behaviour of national elites, that is, corporate owners and their political, military, media, bureaucratic, academic and judicial lackeys.

(Why is Near Term Human Extinction Inevitable?, or here or here). There are scores of papers and books that inform us of the dangers we face:

The Current Mass Extinction:

Human beings are currently causing the greatest mass extinction of species since the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. If present trends continue one half of all species of life on earth will be extinct in less than 100 years, as a result of habitat destruction, pollution, invasive species, and climate change. (For details see links below.)

Scroll Down For Hundreds Of Links:

This website began on April 22, 1998 with the posting of the article below. (The article is still here to provide historical context.) Following the article are more than 300 links to recent authoritative reports and updates about the current mass extinction. New articles are added regularly. (Most recent update December 13, 2014.)

(Mass Extinction Underway, emphasis added). There is no doubt in the consensus of scientists that current human civilization faces what all others before it have faced:

Historically, self-destruction is the common denominator for past human civilization, culture, and society:

"In other words, a society does not ever die 'from natural causes', but always dies from suicide or murder --- and nearly always from the former, as this chapter has shown."

(A Study of History, by Arnold J. Toynbee). As regular readers know, I have posted Sigmund Freud's writings where he indicated that psychoanalysis of groups, including civilization itself, would not prove unproductive ...

(Civilization Is Now On Suicide Watch - 4). The difference is that we humans ourselves are causing this the Sixth Mass Extinction.

The tenets of Ecocosmology would have us avoid this predicament by our always having carefully taken care of the Earth (Tenet Three Basics).

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How do you say ...

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Concern For Earth Life In Earth Life

An accomplished diver got cramps on the bottom of an aquarium but no one noticed, except a whale.

The whale sensed the problem, so the whale took the diver 20 feet to the surface in order to save the diver's life.

No ifs ands or buts about it:

Terrified Yang Yun thought she was going to die when her legs were paralysed by crippling cramps in arctic temperatures. She had been taking part in a free diving contest WITHOUT any breathing equipment.

Competitors had to sink to the bottom of an aquarium's 20ft arctic pool and stay there for as long as possible amid the beluga whales at Polar Land in Harbin, north east China.

But when Yun, 26, tried to head to the surface she struggled to move her legs.

Lucky Yun said: "I began to choke and sank even lower and I thought that was it for me - I was dead. Until I felt this incredible force under me driving me to the surface."

(The Sun). This brings to mind Tenet Four which indicates that all life on earth should be respected because there is a common need to survive.

Earth creatures have a common bond in that sense, and all species should be respected as carriers of some helpful knowledge, substance, ability, or thing that could insure the survival of all of us.

Maxi-Morphs & The Copy Katz

The exceptionally successful movie series Star Wars unveiled the notion that wisdom does not always reside within an envelope of physical beauty.

The almost ugly, almost reptilian, and at the same time almost amphibian looking Yoda was a Jedi Master, a source of wisdom for bringing down the evil empire, and masterfully fought for good.

On a somewhat similar note, there is an astounding ability in a tiny, some would say ugly, creature that is worth noting:

The newt can reconstruct almost any body part, including the brain, spinal cord, heart and limbs. Planarians, a high-school laboratory favorite, can be sliced to bits and each piece will regenerate a new individual.

(The Scientist). The biological ability to morph back into what one was before being severely damaged is notable to say the least, and adds a new dimension to "physician heal thyself".

It stands out as very hip or evolved, especially remembering all of the national hoopla and debate about stem cells and stem cell research.

It seems that every cell in some creatures is like a stem cell, because when damaged, legs, tails, eyes, and even the brain can be reconstructed by these "lowly creatures".

Try walking into your super-duper best in the world realm of the robe wearers at your local hospital and have them grow you back a leg, eye, brain, or arm. Not gonna happen.

Trillions upon trillions of dollars in fantastic equipment and millions of hours of university study, yet the medical robe wearers can't do what the lowly newt can do. The fictional Yoda was spot on when he said:

Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you? Hmm? Hmm. And well you should not. For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter. You must feel the Force around you; here, between you, me, the tree, the rock, everywhere, yes. Even between the land and the ship.

(Yoda Quotes). The Star Wars writers gave fictional life to what scientists who labor in the field of biomimicry know: the sum of wisdom and knowledge is not stored in the human species; so they artistically created the notion of The Force as the repository of that special something.

So, Tenet Four advocates learning from any and all of the creatures of the earth, including microbes, based upon the hypothesis that wisdom and knowledge is hidden down deep in these creatures.

Wisdom that may help pass The Test if we can only learn first to value our home: the earth's ecosystem.

Forest Area Has 350 "New" Species

Only 25% of a forest remains, however, they found about 350 previously unknown species of life:

A flying frog, the world's smallest deer and the first new monkey to be found in over a century are among 350 new species discovered in the eastern Himalayas in the past decade, the WWF said Monday.

But the environmental group said the vital habitats of the mountain range were facing growing pressures from unsustainable development in the region, which spans Nepal, China, India, Bhutan and Myanmar.

In a report released here Monday, it said climate change, deforestation, overgrazing by domestic livestock and illegal poaching and wildlife trading threatened one of the biologically richest areas of the planet.

(Live Science). The other 75% of that forest was destroyed by human civilization in that region, so we may never know how many species became extinct there.

This violates Tenet Four and could endanger the long term prospects for survival of the human species.